Are you a Pro at getting Frequent Flyer miles?

[canwegosoon]

What are your secrets?
What cards are the best?
DH travels 6-7 times a year for work(and usually on 3 different airlines USAir, United and Delta). We as a family fly 1-2 times a year to florida. I would love to get to the point were we could get 2-3 ticket free a year(50-75k a yr). We put about 20-25K on a debit card a year(which gives me about $150 in a free gift card). Can you help me? TIA

 

[safetymom]

www.flyertalk.com is my secret. That board has all sorts of great ideas to maximizing your frequent flyer miles as well as saving money.

Go to miles and points, then the airline,hotel,car rental forum you are interested in.

 

[plutospup]

US Airways, and United are part of the "Star Alliance". You can use your miles from either FF program to book on any Star Alliance partner.

Listen to SafteyMom, check out www.flyertalk.com . It's a wealth of info!

 

[DebbieB]

The best plan is to stick with one airline or it's codeshare partners. My main airline is USAir, but I got messed up this year because I had 5 business trips PIT/MSP which USAir does not service nonstop (not worth making a connection for). I also had 1 trip to Atlanta with 2 more in the next month, which they also do not service non-stop. I've had 14 USAir flights, so if those MSP & ATL flights were on USAir I would have made elite. I do have a trip to Burbank in 2 weeks with a connection in Phoenix on America West, I booked it on USAir so the miles will count this year (they are not combining the programs until next year).

 

[AllyBri]

Try to stay with one airline and one credit card.
We get 3 flights a year each with miles.

 

[NancyIL]

I like the Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX (Optima) Card because the points (1 per dollar) can be transferred on a 1:1 basis to a number of airlines. When you transfer 20,000 Starwood points to an airline, they give you 5,000 bonus miles, which equals a free domestic ticket on many carriers.
https://www66.americanexpress.com/cards/Applyfservlet?csi=6/14311/b/58/2966509289/296064350921/0/n

 

[EdDome]

I've been a premier or premier exec on United for years but recently switched to Southwest. I've become disappointed in the availability for United flights using miles and have never had a problem with SW. I do try to fly with only one carrier to bet the most bang for the buck with rewards.

 

[Servants of Evan]

I'm smelling a mileage run!!! Yep, flyertalk is the semi-authority on maximizing your benefits with FF miles. If you're truly insane, you can spend your weekend doing a mileage run -- flying somewhere solely to rack up the miles. One popular (?) destination right now is Singapore. Yep, you heard right. Crazed mileage junkies will purchase a round-trip ticket to Singapore (around $1300) and when they get there, they'll spend five or six hours checking out the airport, eating some noodles at one of the carts, then heading back home. Not a typical vacation, but you'll score somewhere around 100,000 miles for your troubles. Insane? Possibly. Immediate benefit with your airline of choice? Probably. Rear-end unbelieveably sore? Definately!!!

Servants of Evan